Garden Hotline: Grafting can be done at this time

KEITH FULLERHorticultural Consultant

Published Saturday, January 24, 2004

Though it may be winter, it is the proper time to perform one propagation technique that is misunderstood by many people. This is grafting. Many people think they have citrus trees which have been grafted. Grafting is rarely done in the citrus industry since budding is a more efficient process. Grafting is a process that can be used by homeowners to bring about change on their citrus trees.

In the citrus industry, seedling stock plants like a sour orange or lemon have a single bud of a desirable citrus slipped under their bark. Once it takes and grows, the preexisting top of the sour stock plant is cut off. Then the growth that emerges from the bud union becomes the future top of the citrus tree.

Grafting, on the other hand, is when a stick from a sweet citrus tree is spliced into a cut surface of a sour citrus trunk or lateral branch. Grafting lends itself to hobby horticulturists since it is easier to handle a bud stick as opposed to a single bud. Grafting needs to be performed before growth begins in the spring so the bud stick will have time to take before being dried out by the sun. Budding needs to be done during the growing season since the bark of the stock plant must be slipping in order to accept the single bud. Grafting can be done at this time. Most homeowners would top work a tree they already have. This could be a tree that froze all the way to the ground and so it reverted to being sour or you could switch over a single branch to a desired citrus variety to create a fruit cocktail tree.

Not all bud or graft unions will take. This is because of graft rejection. Not all citrus varieties are compatible with each other. It will generally take the novice more than a single attempt to have success with budding or grafting. This is fine since in either case the stock plant will generally send out new sprouts on which one can try propagation.

To receive information on the exact techniques applied to grafting or budding you can call the St. Johns County Extension office at 824-4564.